The White Samurai
by He Who Writes Monsters
Summary: The story of Kururugi Suzaku is one of change – his is the hand that changed Japan into Area 11, and his hand will be the one that frees it, one way or another, even if it means fighting his oldest friends. AU, JLF!Suzaku


Prologue: Twilight of the Rising Sun:

The first ten years of the life of Kururugi Suzaku could best be summed up in a single word:

_Expectation._

Always, he had had such high expectations, but always, he failed to meet them. He was the son of the Prime Minister of Japan, one of the strongest figures in Asia, perhaps the _strongest_ single leader. It was expected that, like his father, he seek to be the pinnacle of what it meant to be "Japanese". To that end, in a time where Japan was asserting its power over the Pacific, Kururugi Genbu had taken great care to ensure that both he and his son appealed to the strong sense of nationalism that pervaded Japan.

Their residence, rather than the traditional _Kotei_ in the _Nagatacho_ district of Tokyo, was instead a Shinto shrine in the rural _Iyo_ prefecture of the _Shikoku_ island. Here, Genbu had hoped to send the message that his family respected the old ways, and expected his son to throw himself into the role he had prepared for him wholeheartedly.

After all, appearances counted for a lot in the world today – if China thought Japan was weak, they would invade without a second thought to continue their "Pan-Asia" policy. To them, adding a nation as rich in Sakuradite as Japan would be just as, if not more appealing to them than the assimilation of South-East Asia had been. Even without them, the Britannians circled like hawks, talons already sunk into the lands they had termed "Areas 8 and 9", a collection of islands in the Southern Pacific. They would not be too averse to the notion of adding to their Pacific possessions. Even in his youth, Suzaku had understood that much – just as he had understood that for the people of Japan to feel secure with China encroaching on them, then they would need their leader, and those associated with him, to show strength and fortitude.

So he did as his father bid, did it for Japan. And yet he still failed to meet his expectations. He just didn't have the right mind for things – not the cold mind of a politician that Genbu wanted. He just… didn't have the right focus for the studies his father wanted him to excel in. Where Genbu wanted him to stay indoors, to study and exercise under his scrutinising eye – politics, philosophy, history… dry, dusty subjects; Suzaku loved nothing more than to wander outdoors, to explore every nook and cranny and hidden place in the forests and hills around the shrine.

Of course, his cousin didn't help things. Sumeragi Kaguya was three years his junior, but had an imagination large enough for two people. Her knowledge of ancient folklore dwarfed his own, and she never missed an opportunity to remind him of this fact, whether it was through a whisper during breakfast that "Kaede-san is possessed by a _Nekomata_ – I saw her mewling at the moon", it was a bold assertion that "My great-great-great grandmother was the great-great-great-granddaughter of _Amaterasu_." Genbu disapproved of these tales, but it always seemed to be Suzaku that was punished for wasting time stuck in fairy tales. He didn't believe Kaguya anyway… but he kept listening, _just_ in case she was right. He'd never seen Kaede mewl at the moon, though.

When his father left for his regular meetings with the _Diet_, Suzaku was left to his own devices most of the time, and his wanderings took entire weeks. Kaguya wasn't allowed to leave the shrine, and she'd said once, with none of her usual high spirits, that since she was the seventh child of her father, she wasn't going to ever play a big part in the household, and would just be a drain on his finances, so he'd sent her off to become a Shinto priestess.

Nobody, least of all Suzaku, would call him a genius, but he was smart enough to realise that his cousin was trapped, far more surely than he was, and he'd felt sad for her, before resolving to do all he could to indulge her dreams, since she wouldn't be able to do them herself. The next time his father left, he'd gone to look for the _Oni_ spirits that she said haunted the hills, armed only with a stick and his grandmother's lucky charm. A week later, and though he hadn't found the _Oni_ themselves, he'd learned the names of three different trees, and how to best feed a horse, and he found an _Oni's_ tooth hidden amongst the roots of a tree. When he showed his father, the Prime Minister sternly told him to stop fooling around and stop shirking his Biology lessons – if he had gone to those regularly, he'd have discovered that _Oni_ didn't exist, and that he had found nothing more than a perfectly good _cow_'s tooth buried in the ground.

On occasion, when his teacher despaired of him too much, and Genbu was not around to force his son to study, Kirihara Taizo was called to step in during the Prime Minister's absence. Taizo, at first glance, looked positively frightening – old and bony and skeletal, with weathered parchment-skin and deep hollow eyes, but the elderly industrialist was kindly enough, and indulged Suzaku's carefree nature whilst compromising in a way that Genbu would never stoop to – his lessons were never about theory, and dull, boring practices, but about instead hypothetical questions, moral dilemmas poised in such a way that they could not fail to interest the eager child. However, the appearances of Kirihara were few and far-flung – more often than not, he was simply too busy. As the principal force behind the blossoming Sakuradite industry of Japan, he was required, to travel the country, inspecting and improving the mines and factories that used this energy source.

Suzaku always looked forward to the few times Kirihara was able to visit him, and the kindly old man with the scary face found himself soon to be part of the small group, with the sole other member of Sumeragi Kaguya, of people he could call friends, and generally enjoy the company of.

In the tenth year of his life, things changed. Specifically, on the twenty-second of October, in the year 2010 C.E.

_It had been a Friday, the day he came to Japan. His teacher had been trying to teach him about the _Sengoku Jidai_, of Japan's distant past, when he'd heard the unmistakeable sound of not _one_, but_ several_ trucks entering the shrine, and nothing but nothing was going to stop him from looking firsthand to see what was coming back alongside his father.._

_Racing through the emptied corridors, he kicked on sandals as he stepped outside onto the dusty ground, and looked through the throng for Kaguya. She'd probably already know what was going on – her father was well-connected, and he didn't have as much business to take care of as Suzaku's father or Kirihara._

_He saw Kaguya standing by the side of a shaven-headed priest, and made his way over to her with a smile that she returned easily. As he stood next to her, she leant over to whisper in his ear, and it was slightly irritating that, even though was older than her by three years, she was still just as tall as him._

_  
"Genbu-san is bringing back a captive kappa, you know? He fished it out of the Pacific with a fishing line made out of silk."_

"_You're lying," Suzaku said in response, though only half-heartedly. Kaguya shook her head roughly from side to side, and raised her voice._

"_That's _mean_, Suzaku-kun! I'm _not_ lying – Genbu-san will show you, and then you'll see!" she huffed and pointedly looked away from him, and Suzaku sighed, as the trucks ground to a halt and the first people began to emerge._

_There were a dozen soldiers, dressed in military fatigues, led by a man with an axe-sharp face and a seemingly permanent glare. His gaze lingered on every person in turn, and his dark eyes were never still, always moving in a slow, inexorable pattern._

"_Be careful, Suzaku-kun… that man's a sorcerer, yeah…" murmured Kaguya, and one of her tiny hands gripped his sleeve. "He's a sorcerer, and he's put his heart in a box, in a fortress, on a lake, in the forest, on a mountain, on Okinawa Island…"_

"_Hush, child," the monk interrupted her. "That is Colonel Todo, a decorated officer of the army. He is _not_ a sorcerer." He gave a thin-lipped smile "Though he may not have much of a heart left."_

_Kaguya pouted, but the defiance she always displayed when Suzaku said she was wrong deserted her when an adult pointed out that she was wrong. She cocked her head to the side as she watched Todo help another man out of the first truck, and narrowed her eyes._

"_I don't like him. He looks like the kind of man that is born for killing," she said, but Suzaku ignored her as his father stepped from the rear of a truck, back eternally straight, and glared across the courtyard until his eyes met those of his son. He beckoned him forward, and Suzaku began to move, before he realised Kaguya was still holding on to him. He turned to his cousin, whose face had turned pale._

"_Let go of me," he hissed, conscious that he was failing his father's expectations already – just by not coming immediately. "It's not like the kappa's going to eat me."_

"_Kappa? There's no kappa, Suzaku-kun… it's _worse_ than that…" It occurred to Suzaku that he had never seen his cousin so scared before, but she was trembling, and her eyes were wide. "Look, Suzaku-kun… it's _Britannians_." He took a deep breath, extricated her fingers from his sleeve, and turned to see the raven-haired boy his age standing at his father's side, violet eyes angry at everything around him. He ran to join them, seeing his father's frown deepen, and bowed before speaking._

"_It is good to see you, father! How was your trip?" Genbu studied him for a moment, then snorted._

"_You have been playing in the forest again, Suzaku. I can see the grass stains on your clothes. It is unacceptable. Todo will take over as your teacher from now on, and I assure you, he will show you more discipline than your previous teacher. _This_," he indicated the Britannian boy, "is Lelouch vi Britannia. He will be our guest for the moment, and it is your responsibility to be a good host. I have great expectations for you." A pair of soldiers helped a small, frail girl out of the rear of the last truck, and lowered her gently into a wheelchair. "This is his sister, Nunally vi Britannia. She will be our guest also." He said no more than that before marching off towards his office, flanked by two soldiers. Suzaku turned to Lelouch, who scowled at him imperiously, and glancing between the crippled girl and the arrogant boy, he could not help but shake off the feeling that _this_ time, Kaguya was telling the truth._

The rest of the year was far different to anything he had experienced before. As his father had promised, Todo was a harsh teacher, who did not spare any time to let Suzaku continue his traditional activities. Disobedience was rewarded with the cane, lack of focus with harsh language. He insisted that Suzaku learn a martial art, and spent an entire week teaching him how to assemble and disassemble both a pistol and rifle.

It was shown to him very quickly that Todo viewed perfectionism as an admirable trait, and even the slightest mistake, a mis-timed kick, a sloppy stance, a badly worded answer, would result in a stinging rebuke from the Colonel.

But they were not, Suzaku soon discovered, malicious comments. Todo was not the kindest of men, but neither was he the cruellest. His hands and his voice were never soft, but neither were they completely unknowing of humanity. Todo took an active role in Suzaku's life, even when it was not time for lessons. He was easy to find, drilling his soldiers, and Suzaku was soon to discover that the Colonel held no differences between the way he treated people. The way he treated the son of the Prime Minister was no different to the way he treated his personal retinue – the dry-witted Urabe Kosetsu, the aging and wise Senba Ryoga, the quiet and professional Asahina Shogo or the fiercely loyal Chiba Nagisa: Regardless of age, gender or social position, Todo was to all people equally cold, equally hard, and equally patient.

One week, he had indulged Suzaku's request to range out in the wilderness, with the condition that he pick up wild animals, frogs, mice, birds. When he returned, Todo made him sit and watch as he dissected them, and with scalpel-sharp precision point out their inner workings.

He'd known Suzaku would throw up after seeing the red stains on the sandy-brown fur of the fieldmouse he'd brought here, and provided a bucket, and a rare encouragement – "That was good, Suzaku – I barely lasted thirty seconds when my teacher showed me this." He was no more friendly than he had to be, but neither was he malicious. To him, this was simply one more weakness that needed to be purged, as he had purged it from himself. And though he would never make things easier, he at least made sure that Suzaku would leave knowing something knew, something better, stronger every single day.

Suzaku did not question this new curriculum, though he was admittedly unsure of what it entailed – why would his father be so intent on teaching him the skills of a soldier, if he was to succeed him in politics?

His time away from lessons was spent mostly helping Lelouch, though the prince himself spent most of his time secluded in the quarters assigned to him and Nunally. He was very protective of this space, as he was very protective of his sister. Nobody was allowed to go near them without his permission, and even when they were, he kept watching people with that same unflinching glare.

Still, his father expected him to be a good host, so Suzaku tried his best. He was the one that brought meals to the two of them, and whilst Nunally warmed to him soon enough, Lelouch still remained frosty, despite Suzaku's frequent attempts at conversation. Neither talk about his day, or the weather, or the gossip of the shrine interested the young prince, and not even Kaguya's fables, the one time he'd convinced his cousin to come and visit with him. Though that experience had at least shown that he was capable of caring.

"Are you sure about this, Suzaku-kun?" Kaguya was clasping at his arm again, as he led her through the hallways. He reassured her with a nod, though he couldn't understand how the girl could be so unafraid of monsters, and yet be afraid of Britannians. Maybe it's because the Britannians exist, a small corner of his mind answered with a mental grunt. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Todo watching like a hawk from his perch on a bench, and then they were there – in front of the sole wooden door in the shrine – Lelouch refused to have either a screen door or a bead-covering for his quarters; they were security risks, and he wouldn't rest until he had solid oak between him and the outside world. Three quick knocks, and the door opened slightly. A single purple eye looked at Suzaku, and then flitted to Kaguya.

"_Who's this?" Lelouch said in near-flawless Japanese – there was one thing; he may be the most suspicious boy Suzaku had ever met, but he was most _definitely_ smart – and Kaguya bristled._

"_I'm –" she began, but Suzaku cut her off before she offended the prickly Britannian._

"_This is my cousin, Sumeragi Kaguya. Kaguya, this is Lelouch vi Britannia." Lelouch's eyes never left the younger child, and he shook his head slightly._

"_Lelouch? Is that Suzaku?" The voice of Nunally cut through the silence like a velvet knife, and Lelouch grudgingly opened the door._

_  
"Yes it is, Nunally – I'm letting him in now, and he's brought a friend." He shot the two a warning glare before standing aside, and Suzaku and Kaguya entered as one._

_The room allocated to the Britannian royalty was sparsely decorated, with little more than a pair of beds and a table with a single chair. Nunally was seated here in her wheelchair, and she inclined her head towards the noise as Suzaku said his greetings. He handed Lelouch the platter of rice and sashimi that was to be their dinner tonight, and the Britannian prince took it from him wordlessly._

"_Suzaku? How you day today?" Nunally asked in slightly broken Japanese, a small smile on her face, and Suzaku smiled in return – it was good at least that she was willing to learn._

"_Ah, difficult as usual, Nunally." Then, more to Kaguya, "I don't know why my father wants me to study so much with physical exercise, if he wants me to be a politician."_

"_He doesn't want you to be a politician," Lelouch said sharply as he sniffed the food and took a cautious bite. As the food passed his test to ensure there was no poison, he began dividing it in two, with a slightly larger share for Nunally. He put plate and fork in his sister's hands, and stood by her with napkin ready. His dedication to his sister… Suzaku could not honestly say he enjoyed the company of Lelouch vi Britannia, but he could tell right from wrong, and he could tell that, despite his harsh words and sarcastic manner, someone who cared for Nunally as diligently as Lelouch did could not be a bad person at heart._

"_What do you mean? He doesn't want me to become a politician?" He couldn't help but be sceptical of that – if his father wanted him to do something, he would say it out loud and in public. But then again, Lelouch was smart…_

"_He wants you to be a soldier. It's pretty obvious – he doesn't think you can handle being a politician." The Britannian's glare softened somewhat. "I'd count myself lucky if I were you. Better to be out of politics altogether, than to be in it at all."_

"_Suzaku… You… You f-friend?" Nunally managed to get out, face creasing for a moment, and Suzaku puzzled over what she meant until Lelouch translated._

"_Your friend. Nunally wants to know about… Kaguya, was it?"_

"_Yeah…" Kaguya said with a quick nod. "Sumeragi Kaguya – I'm Suzaku-kun's cousin."_

"_Girl…" Nunally said, smile returning. "Didn't know… girl. About… about you?"_

"_She wants to know about you," Lelouch said, looking thoroughly bored, and he sat on his bed, back against the wall._

"_Ah! Okay…. My name's Sumeragi Kaguya, and my great-great-great grandmother was the great-great-great granddaughter of Amaterasu… She's the goddess of the sun, y'know?"_

"_Ah? That's wonderful!" Nunally clapped her hands together, but Lelouch snorted. _

"_You're lying. You can't be descended from a god." Kaguya bristled slightly, and Suzaku interceded before things got too heated._

"_Ah, Lelouch – in a month, there's going to be a festival – I was wondering if you and Nunally wanted to come?" Lelouch opened his mouth to answer, but just looked at Nunally, who at the same time cocked her head towards him. He sighed and shrugged._

"_I suppose so. Now, if that's all…"_

"_Yeah, yeah, we're going," Kaguya said, more frostily than he had ever heard her speak. "Come on, Suzaku-kun."  
_

"_Ah… hold on…" She hesitated just a moment as Nunally reached a hand towards her. "Can I… see you?" Both Japanese children looked at Lelouch instead, to explain how his blind sister wanted to see them._

"_She wants to touch your face, and see what you look like from there," Lelouch translated, and Kaguya, after sending a withering glare at the prince, leant close enough for Nunally to put her tiny palms on her cheeks._

"_You… kind face… Kaguya…" she said, her smile back in place, and then gave a small wave as Kaguya left with him, and closed the big oaken door behind them. It closed with a shuddering creak._

"_I feel sorry for you," Kaguya said to him and shook her head. "I'd rather look after an _ogre_ than a pair of Britannians."_

"_Nunally's not so bad," he interjected. "And Lelouch is a good person, you can tell that. He's just a bit… scared," he said at the same time as she said "mean"._

"_I don't like him. I can tell these things, Suzaku-kun. Lelouch is…" she paused as the door creaked open again, and stared suspiciously at the face that peeked around it._

"_I need to speak with you," Lelouch said, and closed the door behind him. "I want to ask you some questions."_

"_What? What for? We didn't do anything to you," Kaguya said, face wrinkling up. Lelouch hesitated for a moment, then spoke in a lower tone, eyes cast to the floor._

"_Because I want to know if I can trust you with Nunally," he replied. "Because she likes the both of you, and she deserves more than a single friend." His admission of inadequacy complete, he stared fiercely at their faces. "But I'm not going to let either of you near her again if I think even for a moment that you are going to hurt her, ever." His voice carried a tone of desperation to it, for the first time, breaking slightly, and in his sharp eyes there was also a clear, unwanted urgency. Kaguya looked at him for guidance, and Suzaku simply nodded._

That was how he became friends with the Britannian prince – and learned something very important from him. No matter how strong he appeared by himself, in truth, he was only as strong as Nunally was, and when she was in danger, Lelouch vi Britannia fell apart. Over time, their friendship grew, though Suzaku could point out, unfortunately, that it grew only as much as Lelouch trusted him with Nunally. A month after submitting to his questioning, and being deemed acceptable, and Lelouch had let him look after Nunally for the night whilst he spent a night doing… something, that he did not tell even Nunally, so would obviously not tell him.

A few nights after that, and he consented to including Kaguya into this circle of four, and his dismissal of her myths and folklore became just as commonplace as the games of the strange, Britannian game he called "Chess" and insisted they play. Suzaku could never beat him, neither could Kaguya, and Nunally did not even try, but said that only "Schneizel" could beat Lelouch at chess.

Gradually, day by day, life for the four became customary, relaxing, almost. Looking back on it now, Suzaku wonders how he could have been so blind to what was really going on, how he could have missed the growing tensions between the adults in the shrine. He hadn't even noticed when Todo left, hadn't even asked.

The first thing he knew about the war was the day his father assembled everyone in the main temple, and told them that Britannia had declared war on Japan over trade disputes with Areas 8 and 9, and that the Pacific Fleet was already off the coast of Honshu.

Things moved very quickly, from there. Tokyo fell in a few days, and after that, Japan rapidly lost battle after battle in succession. Knightmares were talked about often, mobile fighting platforms that were far faster and more manoeuvrable than tanks, and often had greater firepower as well. They were superior to anything Japan could produce, and the vast manpower of Britannia maintained a steady stream of infantry in support of the Knightmares and tanks.

A week after the fall of Tokyo, news came that Todo had won a victory over the Britannians, at Itsukushima, but where he had won a single victory, over the next few days, the Japanese military suffered defeat after defeat. Lelouch, growing more and more agitated as Honshu fell to the encroaching Britannians, listened to the daily news reports like a drowning man, steadily losing hope. Mutters began to circulate around the shrine, of using the Britannian royalty as hostages, but Suzaku knew that even were something like that to occur, it would mean nothing. It was clear from what Lelouch said that Britannia meant less to him than dirt, and that he was considered even less favourably by the Emperor. Still, Suzaku could not help but grow nervous. Though he technically held power here, second only to his father, he knew that he could not feasibly stop any kidnap attempt, and his father refused even to see him, spending day after day engaged in heated conversation with various generals.

Then one night, Lelouch and Nunally simply disappeared, without warning. Suzaku had suspected the worst, at first – suspected that they had been kidnapped, but the angry mutterings by the servants, priests and soldiers proved him wrong. Whatever had happened to them, no Japanese people had been involved.

Suzaku found the letter the next day, tucked under a floorboard in Lelouch's room and penned in his unmistakeable handwriting, explaining that it was too dangerous for Nunally to remain in Japan any longer, and that he had booked passage back to Britannia to escape the fighting.

Kaguya tried to console him, saying that Lelouch would come back one day, but her voice had only been half-hearted, hesitant, and she had not even bothered to argue when Suzaku said she was lying.

It was then, probably, that he'd actually begun to see the consequences of the invasion. Only when those close to him were personally affected did it cease to be merely a distant, unknown conflict. Only then did he, fearfully, wonder what had happened to Kirihara, who had been in Yokohama during the invasion – and then Todo, who had been cornered in the south-western tip of _Honshu_, and then, most timidly of all, he wondered what would happen to him, Kaguya, the priests and priestesses, his father, when the Britannians came.

Because come they would – Japan's military had been crushed decisively, with only a fraction of their former strength remaining. General Katsuragi had been killed during the Fall of Kyoto, General Hikari during the "Glorious Retreat" from Kineshima, Admiral Miyamoto, along with the entirety of the Imperial Fleet, crushed by the far superior Pacific Fleet… Countless others had surrendered or been betrayed, and were in the custody of Britannia. Those that were left were falling back to defend their Prime Minister to the last, pursued by the Britannian 1st 3rd and 5th divisions, along with Auxiliary Corps from Areas 1, 2, 5, 7 and 8. The forces of Japan were outmatched, both in number and quality of troops, and could not feasibly win this war. It was painfully apparent on the faces of the soldiers, and the maids, and the priests, even Kaguya – it was apparent on every face, save for one. One face that remained determinedly scowling, and insisted that if they must die, they bleed the enemy "until they staggered".

On the first day of the new year according to the Britannian calendar, he saw his father alone. Genbu had secluded himself in his study, illuminated only by a single lamp. He was hunched over his desk, writing letters, endless letters, to generals, to businessmen, and even one, Suzaku saw, to the Chinese Federation, promising economic support and a relaxation of tariffs in exchange for the People's Army to aid them against Britannia. When he saw his son, Genbu glared at him with contempt.

"What cause do you have to interrupt me?" came out in a low growl, and Suzaku faltered, took a step back. Genbu snorted, then continued writing his latest letter with heavy, mechanical brush-strokes. "Leave me, son."

"But father…" Suzaku ventured, dredging up his courage as the man in front of him slammed a fist down onto the table, sending paper fluttering and inkwells wobbling.

"But nothing! This does not concern you, Suzaku!" He was wrong there – this concerned Suzaku: It concerned Kaguya, it concerned Kirihara, it concerned stern-faced Todo, and it concerned Nunally and Lelouch vi Britannia. It concerned his friends, so it concerned him too. He matched his father's stern glare for the first time, and spoke as he had been raised, spoke as the son of Japan's Prime Minister was supposed to.

"This matter concerns me, father. We are losing the war – losing! People die every day, and you can stop it with such ease…" He faltered as his father rose from his seat, towering over him, then summoned up the last dregs of his courage and continued. "Surrender. The Britannians are going to win, but we don't have to die for it!" He mustered up his best imitation of the Kururugi Genbu scowl, but saw nothing more than disgust in the dark eyes of his father.

"You want us to surrender?" he said quietly, and then hit him, a blow that sent the child to the floor. "Coward," his father spat. "Weakling. Runt. Japan will not surrender, ever! If Britannia wishes to control the Sakuradite, we shall detonate it on them. If Britannia wishes to cultivate the land, we will burn it, sow it with salt, and let them starve. But Japan has never been the subordinate of any nation, and it never shall." He grabbed his son by the neck, lifted him bodily to his feet. "We alone survived the wrath of the Mongols!" he shouted. "We resisted the Chinese! We defeated the Europeans! We will never surrender! Do you understand!?" He dropped Suzaku to the ground, and the child rubbed his throat.

"We'll all die, before Britannia gives up!" he called, and Genbu turned back to him, cold and indifferent.

"You have seen nothing of war, Suzaku. If Britannia wants Japan, they will have to fight more than the Japanese army – they will have to kill every last Japanese citizen. We will assail them, with guns and bombs, and far worse. I have authorised every measure to be taken against them – Sakuradite bombs, chemical warfare… We will sweep these locusts from our shores, and every true Japanese citizen will aid the cause. Will you?" Suzaku remained defiantly silent, gaze fixed on a ceremonial sword laying on a counter. His father turned away with a dismissive snort. "You are no true Japanese citizen, and you are no longer my son. When the war is over, should you still live, I will send you to Britannia, and you can surrender all you desire."

Suzaku did not have the mind, the way with words, he knew, to convince his father he was wrong. He hadn't been taught that, hadn't tried to learn. But he had learned the quickest way to kill someone with a single stab from a sword. He'd had it drilled into him by the man who was more of a father to him than the Prime Minister. He laid a hand on the hilt of the sword, exquisitely decorated in silver and gold, and drew it.

At the age of ten, Kururugi Suzaku killed his first man, ending the life of his father on the sharp steel of a ceremonial katana. That was the day that Japan truly lost the war, though the Britannians would not know of it until later.

The denizens of the Kururugi Shrine gave Kururugi Genbu a burial in the manner of his ancestors, and then entered a state of despairing apathy, waiting to see who reached them first – either the wing of the former Japanese army led by Colonel Todo and Lieutenant-General Kusakabe, or the Britannian Auxiliary 20th Corps under Commanders Hereford and Singh. Suzaku wasn't sure which he feared more – the Japanese loyal to his father, or the Britannians.

On the 6th of January 2011 a.t.b. according to the Britannian calendar, the Japanese Army arrived at the Kururugi shrine and began to fortify it. Todo took Suzaku aside, and asked him for the truth with his usual bluntness, and Suzaku confessed it all to his teacher – confessed the murder of his father, and the reasons he did it for. Much to his surprise, his teacher did not immediately condemn his actions. Blunt and to the point, Todo says that it was never a war they had a chance of winning – that had they continued it, none of them would be left alive.

Todo then said that sometimes, in life, people must die, in order for change to occur. After all, the death of Kururugi Genbu has led to this great change. Taking Suzaku with him, he addressed the officers of the Japanese Army, whilst Lieutenant-General Kusakabe was busy evacuating the compound of civilians and precious objects. He told them that the war may be over, but that that does not mean they are finished – he told them that they must wait, for the Britannian presence on Japan to recede; wait, hone their skills, find weapons and equipment to match the Britannians, and then fight back, to liberate Japan.

Suzaku, listening to his teacher and thinking of the war he has just ended, tells him that that won't solve anything, and despite general grumbling from those that were obviously opposed to him, he continued, by saying that if they try to free Japan using violence, then they will only invite a more violent response from Britannia. He says that they have to solve things by working within the system, not against it, and sharp-faced Todo, scrutinising him with his sword-like-eyes, tells two of the officers to take him outside of the main temple. Suzaku received more than one glare from the officer corps, but the two that escort him out were sympathetic.

"You sure have a talent for pissing the wrong people off, kid," Ryoga said, crossing arms over his barrel chest. The aging man smiled, eyes closed. "Nagisa looked like she wanted to tear you apart when you interrupted Todo." He chuckled at that. "Ah, that girl… losing her temper just because a kid interrupted Kiseki no Todo… She worships the ground he walks on, eh, Naoto?"

_The younger officer smiled and ran a hand through his unruly mop of red hair; his pale cyan eyes alight with mischief._

"_Now, now, Ryoga-san, there's no need to say such things in front of the poor boy, is there? Besides… if Nagisa-san hears you saying such things, it's _you_ who'll need to worry about being torn apart." He saw Suzaku looking despondently at his feet, and placed a hand on his head, but Suzaku shrugged it off irritably._

"_Get off me. You're stupid. You're going to keep fighting Britannia." He glared at the two of them. "Don't you know you can't win?" Naoto and Ryoga shared a glance, and then Naoto spoke in a softer tone._

"_If nobody fights against Britannia, then Japan will no longer exist. Take a look around." He reached an arm out, and Suzaku looked sullenly at the forests, the rising curve of a hill, the familiar shape of the shrine's buildings._

"_It's just the countryside," he grumbled. Ryoga snorted._

"'_Just the countryside'? You can tell this one's never been to the cities, eh, Kozuki?"_

"_It's nothing special – I see it every day." He kicked at the ground sulkily, and glared defiantly at the elder men._

"_And what will you say when it's not here anymore?" Naoto said, with a small, sad smile. "When Britannia takes over, there will be nothing familiar about it at all. The mountain will be mined for Sakuradite, the forests felled for industry and to create space; the land will be made into a city, and the countryside will be extinguished. The Britannians have no appreciation for beauty or innocence. They prefer to focus on industry and competition. That's the way they work – anything not necessary is destroyed."_

_Suzaku glared at the space just before his feet, before grudgingly admitting that he could understand that, and Ryoga picked up where Naoto left off._

"_It's not just the countryside the Britannians will take, and change, and ruin – it will be the meaning of 'Japanese.' Have you ever been outside of Japan?" Suzaku shook his head – Genbu had never allowed or expected Suzaku to ever leave the clearly defined borders of Japan – the danger of a China-sponsored kidnap attempt was too high. "Well, I have. I had the chance to visit, amongst other places, India, in my youth."_

"_What's 'India'?" Suzaku scrunched up his face at the sound of the unknown territory – he'd been forced to memorise the countries of Asia, few as they were, in countless Geography lessons, but could not remember any "India", or really, anything other than Japan and the Chinese Federation. Naoto gave him the smile-that-wasn't-a-smile again, small and sad._

"_Exactly. What is India? You weren't even born when the Britannians conquered it completely, but you may have heard of 'Area 1'. India wasn't a prize the Britannians were going to let go from their empire lightly. Under Winston di Britannia, a social experiment was carried out – the complete and total suppression of a subject nation's culture. The Indian religions were made illegal, people of Indian birth were restricted from any office of authority – even their _names_ were taken from them. They are known as 'ones' now, second-class citizens in their own homeland. If Britannia takes Japan, we will become 'Area 11', and the Japanese will be second-class citizens, forced to be subservient to Britannia."_

Suzaku tried, and failed, to keep the distaste from his face, but recalled the words of his father, the glinting black eyes alive with fervent rebellion.

"_That's… that's bad, but if we fight… if we fight, we won't solve _anything!_ If we fight, even if we _win_, Japan will be ruined by war. The best thing to do is to work with Britannia, and solve the problems by helping each other!"_

_Ryoga snorted, and shook his head, whilst Naoto gave the same sad smile._

"_That would be best, perhaps, but it will not happen. Britannia does not work with people – they conquer them, and crush their opposition. The very foundation of their civilisation is based on conflict, not cooperation, and they have _forgotten_ how to cooperate."_

_"It's been tried elsewhere," Ryoga added. "Tried before, with bad results. The execution of Mahatma Gandhi for his opposition to Britannia, the crushing of the Martin Luther King protests… Britannia keeps great prison-ships to transport political dissidents to the baking hot deserts of Area 7… It doesn't matter if you seek a peaceful resolution – Britannia does not care. If you do not obey them, they crush you, and I will _not_ let that happen to Japan."_

_Naoto reached a hand to a back pocket, and pulled a crumpled square of paper, holding it out for Suzaku to peer over. It showed a younger Naoto, with a broad grin stretched over his face, ruffling the bright red hair of an even younger girl, who scowled good-naturedly. Standing in the background were two people, a Japanese woman and a Britannian with the same hair colour as his two children._

"_This," he said, pointing to the girl, "is my little sister, Kallen. She's about the same age as you, you know? She's back in Tokyo."_

_Suzaku looked down at the floor as he said that, and gulped._

"_I'm sorry," he mumbled. Tokyo had fallen to the Britannians days after their invasion, and if Naoto's sister had been there…_

"_Tsk, don't worry about it. Kallen's fine, I know that. Our dad and I may not get on the most, but he would never let anyone harm his precious daughter, and he has enough political clout to have people, when they look at her, see a _Britannian_ and not a _Japanese_ child. She'll be fine, she'll survive, but I don't want her to have to grow up in a society as barbaric as that of Britannia, where the weak and gentle are trampled in favour of those who are strong." He gave that smile again, corners of his lips trembling, and with deadly solemnity continued. "I'd rather fight, and kill, and die, so that she can grow up peacefully, and not be forced to be brutal just in order to survive."_

_Suzaku nodded at that, that made sense, at least, and then his thoughts darkened as he remembered Lelouch. He had to return to Britannia, to find those that had murdered his mother, and to keep Nunally safe. He had to be cold and hard, not just as a Britannian, but as a Britannian _prince_. He had to be smart, and cold, and _ruthless_ just in order to survive – he had to evade his _family_; rely on nobody but himself, keep his sister safe at the same time… It slowly dawned on Suzaku just how sheltered his childhood had been. Just how _safe_ he had been, and taken for granted. But still… but still…_

"_But we can't win the war…" he managed to mutter. "It's terrible, but we _can't_ win – I told my father… told my father… and…" He glanced up at the two of them, and gave voice to his crime. "I killed him. I killed him, because we _can't_ win – Britannia will destroy everything before they let us win, even _Todo_ says we can't…"_

"_You're right." Ryoga had his eyes closed as he spoke, resting his great frame on a wall. "We can't win _this_ war, but that does not mean we should simply give up, lay down like whipped dogs. The Kyoto House, or what's left of it, are sponsoring resistance movements, and we're already designing new Knightmares based on the Britannian "Glasgow" frames. In a few years time, we'll be fully prepared to fight a war with a complacent Britannia, and fight it on an equal footing. In the meantime, we can ensure that the Japanese maintain their national identity, sabotage Britannian production, infiltrate key positions, and show the world that we won't give up."_

"_Who knows? Maybe our exploits will encourage rebellion in other parts of the Empire, and not even the Britannian Army can take on eleven countries at once." Naoto and Ryoga both grinned, and Suzaku smiled with them, beginning to gain hope. He opened his mouth to speak, and then everything went to hell, with the single strangled scream – "Britannians!"_

He could only remember fragments of the battle, catching glimpses of the Britannian assault when he hadn't been pressed to the ground by Naoto or Ryoga, snatching fragments of speech – "Knightmares! They've got Knightmares!" or "They've sealed off the northern road!" or "Todo! Where's Todo!?" Somewhere between the first shot and the last, he saw soldiers on both sides torn apart by gunfire, cut apart by shrapnel, lying in broken, mangled heaps. The metal corpses of vehicles were scattered like discarded toys, torn apart like paper by well-placed rockets or the armour-piercing rounds of Knightmares.

Somewhere between the first scream and the last, he threw up, seeing a man shrieking and waving his bloody stump of an arm frantically. He couldn't tell anymore, whether they were Britannian or Japanese – the uniforms all looked the same when spattered with blood.

_The Japanese had had time to set up defences, but the Britannians had the advantage of both superior weaponry and superior numbers. Waves of "Ones" attacked from the east, bodies piling up as they were cut down by machine-gun fire, and Knightmare squadrons broke through the southern wall, and strafed as they cut down men and tanks with contemptuous ease. A gunship roared overhead, firing two missiles into the shrine, and Suzaku watched as the room formerly belonging to Lelouch and Nunally disappeared in a cloud of black smoke and flung-up dust. He sank to the floor as Naoto and Ryoga popped their heads into an open window to trade fire with a brigade of Britannian infantrymen, and wished there was something he could do. If Lelouch were here, he'd have worked out a plan now, just like he always did – he'd know exactly what to do, how to plug the gaps in the line, how to flank and bring the fight to them…_

_But Lelouch was a thousand miles away, in a land just as dangerous as this, and he needed all his intelligence to keep himself alive. Suzaku resolved not to think about him right now – he may not be the smartest of people, but he wasn't useless, either. One of the Japanese soldiers next to him fell back, a hole through his face, and Naoto cursed between his teeth as he ducked behind the wall and reloaded._

"_Damned Britannians… they're everywhere!" He stood, fired three shots, and then ducked again, a hail of bullets zipping over his head. He glanced at Suzaku, as he waited for the hail of fire to wither away. "You should get to a safe place – find somewhere to hide. There's no… _Shit!"_ Suzaku looked in the same direction as Naoto, to see swarthy-skinned men standing in a broken doorway, swarming and overwhelming the Japanese there as they met bayonet and knives with their own bayonets and strange, curved swords. They shouted in a foreign tongue, and a Britannian captain pointed his gun at Naoto and barked out an order._

_It was a reflex, almost. Suzaku picked up an abandoned pistol, pointed it at the Britannian (his hands never shook – steady as a machine) and pressed down on the trigger. The man stared at him in disbelief, moments before falling back with a bloody ruin where his chest was. The soldiers hesitated just a moment, and Suzaku watched tensely as they looked at their dead officer, then at Naoto. One of them, a turbaned man, shook his head, spat on the corpse of the Britannian, and shouted something in his foreign tongue. Then the Ones turned back and clambered over the wall. Naoto grinned then, and waved over Ryoga._

_  
"We've got them on the run! The auxiliaries don't want to fight us, and the Britannians can't break through! We've won this!" As he finished, the gunfire from outside finished, and his smile vanished as a shadow blocked out the light streaming through the window. The scent of oil and metal, and the sound of groaning, creaking mechanics announced the presence of the new foe, and the Britannians defending this room froze._

_The roof came off jaggedly, and they looked up into the scanning "eye" of a Knightmare, its colossal gun pointed downwards into the room._

_Ryoga swore, someone screamed, Naoto flung Suzaku into a corner, and then the blinding light and deafening chatter of gunfire drowned out everything._

_When his ears stopped ringing, Suzaku uncurled from the foetal position, and opened his eyes, though the dust stung and turned them into red-rimmed, weeping pits. There were groans, and rapid breaths to show that some people still lived, but there was blood, and the stench of death to show that many more had died. Suzaku felt his way blindly through the dust-filled room, and froze when his hands touched something large and hard and metal-cold. When the dust began to clear, he saw that it was the arm of the Knightmare, and following the joins, he found its shoulder, and then the gaping space where its head and the cockpit should have been. The torn wires and crumpled metal showed that it had been torn off. But by what? Outside, he heard singing, faint and ragged, but that barely mattered to him now. He coughed out the dust in his lungs, and then called out._

_  
"Ryoga-san! Naoto-san! Where are you?" A grunt came from his left, and he saw Ryoga sitting up against a wall, with a grim smile._

"_Lucky me," he said bitterly. "Some poor bastard got between me and the first shot, and gave me enough time to get to cover."_

"_Where's Naoto-san?" Suzaku looked over the wreckage, trying hard to suppress the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, thinking of the dead animals Todo had showed him, and how he'd stopped himself feeling sick over them. He saw Naoto lying on the floor, red hair plastered white, and his hands flew to his mouth. The officer, careless and fearless, had a death-sized hole on his left side, with a lake of blood spread under him, and a thin stream trickling from his mouth. When his glazed eyes met Suzaku's, he smiled the same sad smile._

"_Glad you're alive… Suzaku-kun…" he said, and Suzaku bit his lip, but couldn't stop tears trickling down his face. "How… do I… look?"_

"_Kami-sama…" Ryoga swore. I'll get Todo, get a doctor. Suzaku, stay with him!" The big man lumbered away, and Suzaku clasped Naoto's limp left hand in his own._

"_Y-you'll… you'll be fine… we'll get a d-doctor, and he'll… he'll get you better, and… We can stop Britannia, so… so you have to hold on…" His voice failed him, weak and shivering, and he just shook his head helplessly._

"_I don't need a doctor… to know I'm done for…" He closed his eyes and sucked in a shuddering breath. "Do you… still have the photo?" Suzaku jammed his hand into his trouser pocket, and ripped the photo out to hold it in front of Naoto. The dying man's right arm shook and shivered as it rose and clasped it, bringing it down to his face. He began to cry then, a thin stream of clear that broke a rivulet on his pale face and ran slowly to meet the sea of blood on the floor. "Kallen… I'm sorry, Kallen…" He kissed it once, then held it back up for Suzaku to take._

"_N-naoto-san! I… I can't take this from you…" Suzaku waved his hands at the red-haired man, who was still smiling._

"_Don't argue, Suzaku-kun… Where I'm going… I don't have any need for this… not anymore… so, you k-keep it… I think Kallen would have liked… liked this, for me to die… saving someone else…"_

_Suzaku bit his tongue to stop himself from shouting out that she wouldn't have wanted him to die at all – he didn't need to hear that, not now. He reluctantly touched the photo: crumpled, dirty, blood-smeared, _precious_, and Naoto pressed it firmly into his hand. "Promise me something… Suzaku-kun… If you ever… ever go to Tokyo… make sure she's okay… make sure Kallen's okay… Talk to Ogi… he's a good guy, a friend… he's a teacher…" Then his hand fell to his side, and he closed his eyes. "Kallen… she's the same age as you…" He sucked in another lungful of dying breath, and then went still._

_The singing outside was louder, now, Suzaku could hear words clearly._

_  
"Todo! Todo! A Miracle, Todo! A Victory, Todo! Todo!" They'd won… but he didn't care. He looked down on the corpse of the man who'd shown him so much, so soon, and died before his time._

_  
Britannia… he gritted his teeth. Britannia can't be good, not at all – if good people have to die, so it can exist… then it can't be good, can't be reasoned with, can't be changed."_

_He didn't hear the cheering of the Japanese throughout the ruined shrine, or the marching towards the room-turned slaughterhouse, but even in the thick cloud of anger that deafened him, Todo's voice cut through sharp-as-a-knife._

"_It's too late. He's already dead… A shame – Kozuki had potential." Suzaku saw Todo, his four bodyguards behind him, and certainty formed in his mind. "Kururugi Suzaku! Stand and present!" He looked up at the hatchet-faced Colonel, whose eyes brooked no disobedience, and slowly stood, released the deathly-cold hand of Naoto, and saluted._

"_Todo-sensei… I want to fight. I want to fight Britannia, and help Japan. Can… When you leave… I want to go with you." The decision was firm and freshly-planted in his mind, sealed in the blood of a friend. Todo scrutinised him, and Ryoga coughed._

"_He killed a Britannian officer, sir – helped start the retreat of the Auxiliaries. The child has talent, and as you can see, he has motive."_

"_Kururugi Suzaku." Todo said, ignoring his subordinate. "Swear on your father's life, on Naoto's life, on the lives of all the dead Japanese that you will never forget the crimes Britannia is guilty of; never forget, and never forgive." He watched, piercing glare in the silence._

_  
"I swear it," Suzaku said, almost eagerly, and bowed. Todo nodded once, then turned to his retinue._

"_We move out, to the mainland, quickly, before the Britannians can bottle us up in Shikoku. The Japanese army, gentlemen, is defeated. But the Japanese Liberation Front rises from the ashes, like the Phoenix. We will retake Japan, and restore it. So swears Kiseki no Todo, and so swears Kururugi Suzaku, and so swear every man, woman and child here today. We move out immediately."_

_When the Japanese Liberation Front abandoned the ruins of the Kururugi shrine and Suzaku's childhood, Suzaku marched with them, on the truck that carried Todo's personal Knightmare Frame. He held Naoto's photograph as they travelled into the setting sun, and swore that, one day, he would go to Tokyo, and fulfil his promise._

_The first ten years of Kururugi Suzaku's life had been about expectation. The next ten, he swore to himself, he would spend _fulfilling_ those expectations._

**A/N: ****A Challenger Approaches!**

**So, after discovering Code Geass a couple of months ago and getting hooked on it, I'm posting my first fanfiction ever outside of the Narutoverse.**

**Basically, I've noticed a problem with Code Geass in that Suzaku is portrayed as a whiny, hoplessly naive idiot who wants everyone to "live peacefully together and share everything" as if he were the most childish communist in the entire world. Whilst I personally after the Mao arc saw him differently (a.k.a wanting to make sure that everybody stopped fighting so that his murder of his father actually amounted to something), I can fully understand why many people dislike him due to his portrayal. Solution? Have the whole idealistic bullcrap knocked out of his head at an early age. Hopefully I managed to do so believably, and also made Kozuki Naoto seem interesting enough - I tried to write him as I believed his personality to be at that time; something of a cross between Ogi and Kallen.**

**Some quick pre-emptive points: Lelouch will indeed return and plays a large part (just because Suzaku's being bumped up on the Badass-Scale doesn't mean Lelouch needs to be pansified), and pairings are undecided, but I would prefer it if people, if they must state in a review which pairing they want to see, they do so with a good reason relating to the story, not simply a "Suzaku/Kallen because it's cute"-type thing. Sorry, but that's a pet peeve of mine. I happen to be quite open to pretty much every non-Yaoi relationship there is.**

**Until next time Subutai's Ghost**


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